Articles about Windows 11 upgrade

Earlier this week, a number of Windows 10 users were surprised to be offered a free upgrade to Windows 11 despite the fact that their hardware did not meet the minimum system requirements set out by Microsoft.

Upon trying to take advantage of the upgrade offer -- which even appeared in virtual machines running Windows 10 -- users were unable to complete the installation. Microsoft has now acknowledged the issue, but has neither apologized nor offered an explanation.

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Microsoft has finally made it possible to purchase Windows 11 product keys and download the software straight from its servers, an option that has been weirdly unavailable for the year the OS has been in existence. Windows 11 has been available as a free upgrade for quite some time now, but there are reasons for wanting to -- or at least needing to -- buy a copy of the operating system.

If you're building a PC from scratch, for instance, you'll need to install Windows 11 from scratch, and this means you can't take advantage of a free upgrade. But buying direct from Microsoft, while a welcome option, is far from being the only way to buy Windows 11, and it's certainly not the cheapest.

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It is the time of the month when Microsoft unleashes its C release updates on eager Windows users. As such, the company has released a preview of the KB5015882 update for Windows 11, bringing a number of important changes and bug fixes.

Although this is a non-security update, KB5015882 remains significant for a number of reasons. Not only does it address an issue that caused explorer.exe to hang, but it also introduces new upgrade options and makes changes to focus assist.

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Some seven-and-a-half months after the original release, Microsoft has announced that Windows 11 is now "designated for broad deployment".

We use the word "announced" fairly loosely here; the revelation was made in a status change on the release health page for Windows 11. It means that any computer that meets the minimum requirements will now be offered the upgrade, and it lays the groundwork for the rollout of Windows 11 22H2 in the coming months.

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Since the launch of Windows 11, there has been a compatibility issue between the operating system and VirtualBox. People attempting to use Oracle virtualization software found they were unable to start virtual machines and saw error messages with Hyper-V or Windows Hypervisor installed.

As a result of this problem, Microsoft introduced a safeguard block which prevented people with VirtualBox installed from upgrading to Windows 11. But following work by Oracle developers to address the issue, Microsoft has now lifted the block.

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When Chief Product Officer of Windows and Devices at Microsoft, Panos Panay, wrote about "a new era of the PC", he revealed some of what we can expect from Windows 11 in the future. But his blog post also shed light on just how the operating system has been received by users.

Panay reveals the impressive statistic that Windows 11 upgrades have been taken up by users at twice the rate of Windows 10 upgrades. Satisfaction levels are said to be high, and as a result Microsoft is well ahead of its mid-2022 target for the rollout of Windows 11.

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It's three weeks since Windows 11 started to roll out, and now Microsoft is starting its push to encourage people who can upgrade to do just that.

Part of this drive is delivering the PC Health Check app to Windows 10 machine, giving users a quick way to check whether they can upgrade to Windows 11 or not. The app is being pushed out as part of the KB5005463 update and the rollout is likely to irritate as the automatic update essentially forces the Windows 11 compatibility checker onto people.

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Microsoft has shared details of a new known issue with Windows 11. The company has confirmed that a problem exists with apps that use certain characters in registry keys.

As a result of the discovery, Microsoft has put a compatibility hold in place that means people with problematic apps installed will not be offered Windows 11 via Windows Update. The issue is under investigation.

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Research Vice President with analyst firm Gartner has said that Windows 11 could have been released as a feature update for Windows 10 rather than a whole new version of the operating system.

While Stephen Kleynhans praises the removal of Internet Explorer, the addition of Android support and welcomes what he describes as an "overdue facelift", he feels that releasing this as an upgrade rather than just an update is simple marketing by Microsoft. He also advises business and enterprise uses against rushing into adopting Windows 11 and predicts low usage numbers even by 2023.

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With performance problems, confusing system requirements, high memory usage, and other issues, the launch of Windows 11 has not been as smooth as many people would have hoped. In the build-up to the rollout of the operating system, Microsoft made much of the need for systems to have TPM 2.0 in order to qualify for an upgrade -- but then the company moved the goalposts.

Having previously said that installation on computers without TPM 2.0 would not be possible, Microsoft has since revealed an official workaround that makes it possible to install Windows 11 on incompatible hardware. This is a risk, however, and there is a stark warning that you could cause damage to your PC.

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The roll out of Windows 11 started yesterday, and while many people are eager to upgrade as soon as possible, there are plenty of others who want to hold off for a little while. The list of known issues acknowledged by Microsoft may be short, but users who have upgraded to Windows 11 are experiencing other problems.

One such issue sees File Explorer using huge amount of RAM. The problem is being blamed on a memory leak and was initially reported a couple of months ago -- but now more people have access to Windows 11, further reports are coming in confirming the issue.

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The latest research by IT Asset Management software company, Lansweeper, has revealed that 55 percent of workstations are not capable of being upgraded to Windows 11.

This will be an issue for enterprise IT teams looking at strategies to install the new operating system which begins its rollout from today.

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Windows 11 is now less than a week away from rolling out to people around the world. Despite the launch being so close, there is still great confusion surrounding system requirements for the operating system, especially the need for TPM 2.0.

Many people using the PC Health Check app to test their system's compatibility with Windows 11 have been disappointed to learn that they do not have TPM 2.0 and therefore will not be able to upgrade. But a new, open-source install script has been released that makes it possible to install Windows 11 on just about any hardware, bypassing the TPM check. Say hello to MediaCreationTool.bat.

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Microsoft is gearing up for the big launch of Windows 11 next month, and while there is enthusiasm in certain sectors, this is certainly not true across the board . The roll-out of the latest version of the operating system starts on October 5, but it seems like the company has an uphill battle on its hands to increase awareness and interest.

A new survey shows that almost two thirds of Windows users are unaware of Windows 11. Perhaps even more concerning for Microsoft is the news that of the 38 percent of users who know about the impending arrival of the new version of the operating system, a mere 41 percent intend to upgrade to Windows 11. The survey also gives an insight into what people are looking forward to in the operating system.

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We know that Windows 11 is on the way, we know that there is a new look, we know that there are new features, and we know that we can test drive the beta version right now. But what about the actual release date for the finished product?

So far, Microsoft has not given much away beyond saying it will be ready for the holiday season. That said, it seems that the only way to get hold of the RTM build this year will be to buy a new computer with it pre-installed; anyone looking to upgrade from Windows 10 will have to wait until next year. We've already had hints that the release date for Windows 11 is October, but now there are further clues -- from Microsoft itself.

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